Has Cabelas gone down hill?

[pojoaque40]

When i think of quality i think of:

backpacks: stone glacier, mystery ranch, kifaru, kuiu, etc.
fly rods: sage, orvis, st. croix, winston, tfo, etc.
clothing: first lite, sitka, kuiu, etc.
boots: meindl, sportiva, crispi, kenetrek, etc.
bows: mathews, hoyt, pse, bowtech, etc.

...and many others.

So why does the "world's foremost outfitter" not carry a single one of the world's foremost brands?

That's why i don't shop at Cabelas any more; they simply aren't focused on serving the sportsman who has more than a passing interest in the sport. Hell, i stopped using my Cabelas CC because i can't find anything i want to use the points on.

 

[mtmuley]

I just remember as a kid how excited I was when the big Cabela's catalog showed up in the mail. mtmuley

 

[Sytes]

I still drool over the catalog portion for bass boats... That count for anything?

 

[Zootownelk]

Is it just me or has Cabelas really gone hill in recent in years of quality name brands and competitive pricing?

Some of my best hunting gear and clothes are Cabelas' brand, including my 20 year old duck hunting jacket which gets A LOT of use. I will not buy clothing from them or other branded items after Bass Pro acquisition. Sad, really.

 

[geetar]

Or taken away from you after you snuck it into church.


Just me?

Haha that’s awesome.

 

[Cheesehead]

Or taken away from you after you snuck it into church.


Just me?

My childhood.

 

[shootbrownelk]

I used to spend a LOT of $$ with them. Casual clothes, hunting clothes, optics, gear firearms. Their website is a shell of what it used to be. Their selection is sad.

No more lifetime warranty, Crappy Redhead clothing replaced the Cabelas brand. Poor customer service....everything we've come to expect from Ass Pro. Now that they have gobbled up Sportsman's Warehouse we can expect equally poor things from them. Morris sure has himself a nice monopoly going there.

 

[TransplantHunter]

Yeah, I hardly ever buy anything at Cabela's anymore. I used to try and find stuff at Sportsmans but now that they have been acquired by the owners of BassPro, I am a little less likely to go there.

What sucks is that in my area, I only have those two choices unless I feel like driving an hr to Scheels (which is getting more and more likely).

 

[Ben Lamb]

Some of my best hunting gear and clothes are Cabelas' brand, including my 20 year old duck hunting jacket which gets A LOT of use. I will not buy clothing from them or other branded items after Bass Pro acquisition. Sad, really.

Seriously. Their hunting clothes used to be an incredible value. I've got hunting pants & shirts that are going on 10 years now with another 5 ahead of them.

 

[hank4elk]

I have a Cabella's goretex rain suit that I wore for 18 yrs working outdoors & is still behind a truck seat when needed 12 years later.
The Ford has a Gander Mtn 60/40 parka in it,30 years old & could be new/used.

I'm tossing the last Rain Suede I got 10 years ago & wore twice. Total junk.
Did find ammo 4 years ago,but not their brand or doing.They just had it.

Duluth is joining the no go pile too. Have great stuff from long ago,but recent purchases have failed.
1 year old vest zipperfail ,but I did get my $ back.
Wearing a pair of flexfirehose pants today that are ok comfortwise, but no going to store with a ZIPPER showing all it's teeth................they can't even spare enough material to cover it,but the flex stretches it like a Cheeser cat...... & I'm a skinny cat.

At least Wrangler can get china to make clothes the same as they did here,sleeve length & tails that stay tucked in...............fit. But they are nothing like what they used to make.

Skre gear appears to have lost it in regards to what fits an American too. Maybe it will last a couple years @ the ranch.

Sorry for the rant but I'm only buying American made from now on if I want it to fit me or last a year or more.Maybe Canadian or Euro.

 

[OntarioHunter]

It didn't take a crystal ball or sack of tea leaves to see that Cabelas was headed in the toilet twenty years ago. Their overhead expenses were ridiculous. Those stores were simply too much of an expensive showpiece. And getting into the real estate business of chopping up the West to sell to rich slobs was a HUGE mistake, particularly in Montana. When my dog Opal was dying two years ago (and Pearl four years before), I was down to U of Minn Vet School several times and visited Cabelas while waiting for MRIs. The huge taxidermy displays were filthy with inches of dust on them. I felt like I needed to wash my hands just looking at them. The kids arcades and aquariums are hugely expensive to maintain but really don't bring in any money. I bought a pair of Red Head boots that served me well enough over three years of very hard hunting in Africa and Montana. Two or or three seasons is all I get out of any boots no matter who makes them. I wear out the soles. I bought two Red Head camo shirts for Africa and they are the best shirts I've ever owned. Sleeves are actually a bit too long instead of typical way too short (e.g. Wrangler). And light as they are, those shirts have not shown any signs of wearing out even though I wear them almost constantly. And they look good too. No complaints about Red Head stuff. I can understand the big box stores not carrying very high end items like Sitka clothing or Sage rods. Hard to carry ultrahigh priced inventory that moves real slow. Gets outdated by new and improved models before it can be sold. Then leftover inventory has to be dumped on sale at a loss to make room for new models. Otherwise the few aficianodos who do buy overpriced show off stuff go online and/or to manufacturer store for new "best" models. Same thing applies with anything the store sells. Just means they take less of a hit clearing cheaper stuff which also generally moves fast enough to keep inventory low.

 

[YoungGun]

I just remember as a kid how excited I was when the big Cabela's catalog showed up in the mail. mtmuley

No Kidding- In my house, the Fall Catalog sat proudly on top of the thrown in the bathroom for all bathroom needed reading. Although there's no longer a catalog in it, my bathroom has the same items as Cabela's anymore- Crap.

 

[Gr8bawana]

Sorry for the rant but I'm only buying American made from now on if I want it to fit me or last a year or more.Maybe Canadian or Euro

Good luck with that. Even a lot of the high dollar stuff is made in china. Sitka-china, KUIU-china, First Liht-china, Pnuma-chuna/Vietnam and the list could go on and on.

 

[Bigjay73]

Doubt Cabelas cares, their parking lot is always full.

 

[noharleyyet]

Doubt Cabelas cares, their parking lot is always full.

 

[matechakeric]

Good luck with that. Even a lot of the high dollar stuff is made in china. Sitka-china, KUIU-china, First Liht-china, Pnuma-chuna/Vietnam and the list could go on and on.

that's a bummer. I opted against a prominently featured knife by Gerber in favor of mora knives. not American made but I'll gladly support Swedish-made over China-made any day of the week given a choice

 

[LuketheDog]

I bought an archery target at Cabelas yesterday because my in-laws are non-hunters and they think a Cabelas gift card is AWESOME. I think the shoppers in the store were outnumbered by the employees plus the time-share folks who had the table set up back toward the fish tank, it was a ghost town, I think somebody had run a feather duster over the taxidermy since the last time I'd been there though.

 

[JLS]

I don't understand the Scheel's love. As I said, Cabelas is a sad shadow of its former self, but is still better than Scheels or sportsman's warehouse or any of the rest.

Ben, shop Duluth Trading.

You’re drunk.

 

[jeremys4]

I like scheels

 

[bigbuck247]

Yes, greatly since Basspro bought them out. I am hoping we get a scheels here in Oklahoma soon. I recently bought some Sitka gear from them and I am getting to go to a store in person here in a couple weeks in Colorado Springs.